61 Using English at Work

Lesson 8 - Meeting with the Boss

forward toward completion, or how quickly it is getting better or getting finished. If someone asks about your progress in learning English, they want to know if your English is getting better. I hope it is, after listening to this course!

I go to my boss's office to give him an update on my progress, meaning that I want to tell him the latest news about how the report is coming along - how it is developing, how it is going. I know my boss is expecting the report on Monday and I want to let him know that it will be finished on schedule. "On schedule" means on time or as we originally planned. My boss tells me he needs the report on Monday. Fortunately, I am going to be able to give it to him that day, so the report is on schedule. If we say something isn't on schedule, then we mean we have to find more time to work on it, or else it won't be finished by the date when it's needed. We may say, "Are the trains running on schedule?" meaning are they arriving to the stations - the train stations at the time that was originally planned. If they're not on schedule, we would say, also, they are "behind schedule." "Behind schedule" would mean, in this case, they are late. If I'm behind schedule on my project that means that it will not be finished when I planned it to be finished.

Before I can go into my boss's office, however, he calls me into his office. "To call someone into your office" means to ask someone to come into your office, usually for a private conversation that wasn't scheduled or planned. Sometimes when a boss calls an employee into his or her office, the person gets nervous and scared because the boss may be mad or angry about something. But in this case, I find there's nothing to worry about.

I go into my boss's office and he tells me to sit down. My boss tells me that the regional manager is impressed with my work. The "regional manager" would be the manager of a certain large area. For example, if a company sold products to all 50 states in the United States, there might be different regional managers: one for the western region, one for the southern region, and so forth. My boss says that the regional manager is impressed with my work. "To be impressed with something" means to be very pleased or very happy with something that has happened or with something that another person has done. Parents are usually very impressed with the things that their children do; even the smallest things, sometimes. The regional manager is impressed with my work, which means that she likes the work I've been doing.

Next, my boss tells me that the regional manager is considering me for a promotion. A "promotion" is a move within one company from a less important job to a more important job, usually because someone has done his or her job very well. A promotion often leads to more money as well. People get

62

Using English at Work

Lesson 8 - Meeting with the Boss

promotions from Manager to Director, or from Vice President to President. Getting a promotion is usually very good news, unless it's more work with the same amount of pay. Then, not so good news!

My boss says this information is hush-hush. "Hush-hush" is an informal term that means that something is a secret, something that shouldn't be talked about with other people. "To hush" means to tell someone to be quiet, so "hush-hush" means being quiet about something - not telling anyone else. You might tell a friend, for example, that you're falling in love with the woman who works next to you, but you ask him to keep it hush-hush because you don't want other people to know - like her boyfriend! By saying that the information is hush-hush, then, my boss is asking me not to tell other people that I'm being considered for a promotion.

The boss shares this secret information with me because he wants to give me the heads up. A "heads up" is information that you receive before anyone else does. A "heads up" is an advanced notice. If you're a good customer at a clothing store, the store might give you a heads up about a sale that's going to start in a few days - they're giving you information in advance, before other people get it. In this case, my promotion hasn't happened yet, but now I have a heads up on it and I won't be surprised if it does happen. I hope it does!

My boss says that the promotion would give me a new title. A "title" is the name of your job, basically. Common titles include Customer Service Representative, Finance Director, Vice President of Marketing, or perhaps Senior Accountant. In addition to getting a new title, I'm also going to get a small raise. A "raise" is an increase in your salary, the amount of money that you earn for doing your job. Many people get a small, 2 to 3% raise at the end of the year to cover the high cost of living; but they can also get larger raises, maybe 5 or 10%, for doing their jobs very well. When we get a promotion, as I mentioned earlier, we usually get a raise because the new position is often more difficult and has more responsibility.

My boss says that the most important thing about the promotion is not the title or the raise, but that it will put me in line to eventually become a regional manager myself. "To put someone in line" means to help someone prepare for something in the future, especially for a personal or professional success. Doing more than your boss asks of you or perhaps doing it faster than other people may put you in line for a promotion; it's a way of preparing you for a promotion. Getting this promotion will prepare me to be a regional manager someday in the future, so it will put me in line to become that manager.

63